Girls in EVE are special snowflakes, because no two girls are alike. You can quote me on that.

Before EVE I never really considered myself a gamer. I did play World of Warcraft but that was pretty much it. And really, most everyone I knew played WoW, it was just another form of entertainment and the people I knew who played it weren’t like ‘hard core gamers’.

The huge difference between WOW and EVE is that, WoW had tons of girls, it wasn’t really a big deal to be female on that game.

But EVE on the other hand….

I’ve heard the ratio of female gamers on EVE to be something like 5%, not certain if that is correct or not but from what I’ve seen, I would say that is pretty damned close.

You would think that with their being so few girls on EVE, there would be a better sense of camaraderie among the female population but my experiences are far from that.

Simply put, you can’t categorize all girls under one banner, that’s hardly fair. Just like you can’t say that all the guys on EVE are the exact same either.

When I first started EVE, I was hoping to find another girl to be BFFs with on the game but there simply weren’t any around. PIE had one absentee female but when I was a part of the corp, she was on break or something.

Later, once I started joining militia fleets I still rarely ever met another female.

Eventually, we got a girl into our corp and I was ecstatic! Finally I will have a BFF and we will bond and do things together and gossip about people and life will be grand! She was even a roleplayer, like myself, and I was all weeee, this is great.

She fucking hated me lol.

She was pretty much the downfall of my old corp, in fact. She was so catty talking about me in private channels and being a mean girl that I was like, fuck it, I’m leaving corp. I wont rehash that whole drama, you can read about it here if you’re curious.

Moving on!

Somewhere along the way, I was told about the Women of EVE channel, a game channel only for women, verified by the moderators. To get into the channel, you have to go through a whole voice chat on comms with the mod, and talk. (no they don’t ask your bra size or anything girly of that nature)

The channel was nice at first but very quiet. The idea is a good one, a place where girls can chat and bond without any interference with guys. In practice, it was sometimes awkward. You’re basically in a channel with a lot of people you don’t know and have little in common with except you’re female. Sometimes I’d chat, most often not.

On one of my particularly chatty days, some of the girls and I came up with this crazy way of making ISK, and I laughingly told one of my friends about it on Instant Messenger. He asked who, and I told some of the names.

He was like ‘wait a minute, that isn’t a girl.’ I was like, ‘sure it is, girls are verified’, and he is like ‘nope, and I’ve been on comms with him enough to know’. He was the guy’s CEO after all.

I was appalled thinking that some guy infiltrated the ‘safe haven’. I mentioned it in the chat when I found out, talking to some of the girls, something like ‘omg I just found out so-and-so is really a guy’. The next day in the chat, the guy logs on and I confronted him in the chat channel ‘So I hear you’re a guy.”

One of the mods of the channel convos me and tells me that so-and-so is a transgendered.

I felt really bad for ‘outing’ him and immediately opened up a convo and apologized. We had a little chat, everything was fine.

Fast forward two months later, literally to the day, and another mod of that channel sends me a nasty letter telling me I was ‘intolerant’, ‘drama causing’, and ‘hateful’.

Whoa nelly.

I immediately sent a perfectly nice response back, albeit a little confused on why it was being addressed now, that I had apologized to the person months ago and nothing more was ever said. Again, I figured the matter would be dropped. She sent back some scalding letter and it really pissed me off, because I think of myself as highly tolerant, and those who know me always say how NICE I am, I would never go out of my way to hurt someone’s feelings or out someone just to be douchey. It’s not who I am!

I whined to my BFF Xolve, someone who at the time was a Director of Fweddit, and he took some Fwedditors into the public channel and said things. (typical Fweddit style)

I left the Women of EVE channel because it wasn’t worth the hassle, and she threatened to ban me anyhow.

Outside of Militia, Sindel Pellion is super nice and fiesty, I also have met Mintchip a couple of times. Love her or hate her, I think she does a lot of good for EVE. She has tons of followers from other games, and I feel like she exposes EVE to a lot of people who might not have seen it or been interested in it.

And of course there is my nemesis, the dreadfully evil Susan Black of the Minmatar. She’s not really my nemesis, but everyone likes to pit us against one another merely because we are both females with a blog on opposite sides of a war. Silly, but it is what it is. When I think of Susan and I, I compare us to Glinda and Elphaba from ‘Wicked’. Good witch (me) and bad witch (her) who eventually become friends.

What is this feeling?
Fervid as a flame,
Does it have a name?
Yes! Loathing
Unadulterated loathing
For your blog
Your ships
Your trolling
I loathe it all
Ev’ry little post, however small
Makes my very flesh begin to crawl
With simple utter loathing
There’s a strange exhilaration
In such total detestation
It’s so pure, so strong!
Though I do admit it came on fast
Still I do believe that it will last
And I will be loathing
Your blog
My whole life long!

(Amarr Militia):
Dear Shalee, you are just too good
How do you stand it? I don’t think I could!
She’s a terror! Minmatar!
We don’t mean to show a bias,
But Shalee, you’re a martyr!

(Shalee):
Well; these things are sent to try us!

(Amarr Militia):
Poor Shalee, forced to reside
near someone so disgusticified
We just want to tell you:
We’re all on your side!
We all share your loathing…

How long has your corp been apart of FW? And why was Gallente chosen over the other factions?

We’ve been a part of FW for a grand total of 4 months and 15 days, after we decided that being mercs in highsec just wasnt cutting it anymore.

We chose Gallente over the other for the fact that we only had the standings for Gal or Minny FW, this war zone looked the liveliest.

Tell us a bit about your corporation and what you’re looking for in a potential recruit.

We’re a laid back group, mostly EU members with a few Americanoes, that just enjoy to make jokes at each others expense (usually mine).

We Lead ‘almost’ nightly fleets with either myself or one of our Trainee FCs at the helm (the title of trainee links into our confusing reimbursement scheme)

The corp is led by our ‘core group’ of guys who were with us through the tough transition from being mercs, with a bunch of newer faces thrown in the mix.

New recruits should be able to fit in well with us as a whole, a general rule of thumb is that if we can’t get them talking to us in the first week like they’ve known us for years, they’re probably not a good fit, though most people love us after a few days ♥

In terms of skills, we’re always on the lookout for talent, but we end up picking a few guys that are rather new to the game (a few months old) and train* them with the skills they need.

*Train in this case means you’ll die a fire rather quick, and love every second of it.

What kind of rules does Ghost Headquarters have?

The main one, and my pet hate, has to be shit fit losses on the kill board that just make you look at it and scream, ‘WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!’ – blobs I can understand, but fitting small guns and a hybrid tank on a battleship is just embarrassing. If you’re unsure about anything at all, don’t be afraid to ask someone that’s been here longer.

How important is plexing and sovereignty to Ghost Headquarters?

We do tend whore it up on the ISK side of things when it came around to upgrade day, but it’s not overly important to us as a whole seeing as we live on the fringes of FW space where the sov of our system cannot be flipped.

From your perspective, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the Gallente Militia?

They’re a great bunch of guys with a great guy in charge overall (Julie ♥) and can pull a strong fighting force when needed.

On the other hand, they can be disorganized to the point where you want to slam your head against a wall, with people trying to talk over FCs and a fleet of guys telling you how ‘the only ship I have is tackle!’. Julie often finds himself getting burned out due to all the general militia relying on him to take fleets with only Dopified there ready and willing to help him, but not many other people taking on the FW nubs due to the aforementioned reasons.

What’s the one thing that frustrates you most about FW?

It has to be either the people who complain that there isn’t a fleet up, yet are too lazy to get on up themselves, or the general blobbyness of the opposing milita.

In your opinion, what is the best thing about FW?

Hands down, the people. From the amazing EU lineup from the likes of Dark rising, SOTF and GHQ to the Americans in Justified Chaos and even the Auzzies led by Larkness, if we all collaborated together we could easily be winning the war.

What are some of your most memorable experiences from FW?

The first time I realized the militia as a whole had potential as we took down a small pirate BC fleet while they had triage archon support, took them down easy.

What’s a typical day like for a Ghost Headquarters pilot? ie, what sort of ships would you fly, what kind of fleets do you run, etc.

Our members often like to run around solo or in very small gangs in small stuff like AFs, cruisers and the like, when the evening rolls around we have an almost nightly fleet taking out anything from frigates, to shiny cruisers, to BLOPs, to BS Fleet with triage support on standby, nothing we don’t really dabble in!

What do you think of the sudden pre-Retribution changes that are taking place in FW today?

While it’s a shame some of the militia plans can’t be thrown into effect, I think it’s a good thing for CCP to keep us on our toes.

Discuss the Caldari Militia from your perspective. Who do you admire the most? Who do you enjoy blowing up the most?

I don’t really think much of them, the only people I can see that could cause some problems would be either Happy Endings or IBS in OMS (the latter only because they only blob with falcons. Soulless Brutor – I Love to get the chance to shoot that guy, he leads Squid scrub fleets and really sucks at it (especially when he tries to self destruct his proteus), kudos to him for organizing them though.

After 4 years of FW, I think saying our pilots were burned out on it would be a gross understatement. Pilots were leaving PIE or just not logging in anymore.

Do you think the move to null strengthened, weakened, or had no impact at all on your corp?

Overall it was a good thing. We got to kick back and relax a bit. I think the main thing that came out of it was that we were reminded there are other things to do in EVE that are fun. On the flip side of that, it also reminded us that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the hill.

What was daily life like for PIE in null?

That’s impossible to answer for PIE, as we were all over the place, it was like furlough. For me, I would do roams with CVA and allies once in a while. Mostly it was a time for me to step back from EVE and recharge a bit.

What brought PIE back to FW?

My main goal as CEO is to help PIE pilots experience EVE in whichever way they enjoy, within PIE rules of course ;-). FW is an aspect that I and many other PIE pilots like, so I didn’t want to keep us from that. However….

What kind of goals does PIE have since rejoining FW and do they differ from when PIE was in FW originally?

…. There are some of my pilots that loath FW, and I totally understand that. No one is required to participate in FW anymore. I’m trying to encourage my pilots to NOT overdue any facet of EVE, FW in particular. I don’t want anyone dreading to login because they feel they have to go and plex for six hours or something. FW is great for easy PvP, and for us it’s got the added RP sugar which is nice. Some of my guys will certainly spend a ton of time in FW, but some won’t. My aim is to make PIE enjoyable for all of its pilots, not just the FW guys.

Do you think PIE will ever change any of its well-known rules, ie, PIE only accepts Amarrian toons and only flies Amarrian hulls?

Not on my watch.

But really, no I don’t think so. It’s what makes PIE – PIE. We are the elitist zealots who are better than everyone else, and nothing you can do or say can convince us otherwise, God is on our side, so there!

🙂

What is daily life like for PIE now that you are back in the war zone? What is priority, claiming space or pvping?

For those of us who are doing FW, I’d say both. We don’t like seeing Amarr down so many systems, but it’s also a lot of fun to shoot heathens in the face. The best is when you get to shoot enemies while claiming space for the Empire!

How difficult is it to run a full on RP corp in a militia that so few RP in?

Heh, it can be trying at times, particularly with the more unsavory elements in the militia. We have to strike a very fine balance of “they are militia-mates, but they are horrid, horrid people”. Even if the militia are not ‘RPers’, sometimes they’ll talk about Amarr as ‘their side’ so we try to take those little bits and run with it. If they are being ‘lolrp!’ it’s easy just to ignore them or troll them some by staying IC 🙂

What do you think of the Inferno changes? Also, what is your opinion of the proposed Retribution changes for this winter?

Honestly I’m not too familiar with the Inferno changes other than everyone is saying FW is(was) an ISK making machine. Retribution(and it’s early patch) I think are great strides in getting FW where it really should be.

Thank you, CCP, for making it so you have to kill the Navy NPCs to capture a plex, thank you, thank you, thank you, four years late, but thank you.

Last night was our corp tournament to celebrate our one year anniversary. Corpies were asked to fit up three tech 1 frigs without t2 rigs, ECM, Jams, or active reps. I drew names and of everyone who was participating and paired people up.

Almity had set up a safe spot out in Egghelende and had the two fighters warp in to him, where he was streaming it so everyone back at the station could watch.

After we lost two fights, we were out of the contest.

Honestly I’m not much of a solo pilot and I rarely ever duel, so I was kind of hoping to die early on so that I could just get things over with! I really don’t know why I was nervous over flying a frig! I’ll drop a dread easily and not be nervous at all. So strange.

Surprisingly, I won my first two fights in a tormentor. For my third round, I tried out a merlin, but ended up losing. Overall I came in 3rd place. Durr came in seconds, with Snape winning.

Then we had a Battle Royale, with RTS Avalanche from TMFED joining us. For this, we all warped into the bookmarked safe spot within 30 KM, and pretty much shot each other until one person was left alive. This was hilariously fun. For this, I flew a whatever-mods-I-have-in-my-hangar fit punisher. In the end it came down to RTS, Kato, and I. Kato ended up winning in a slasher.

After our tournaments, some of us joined up with Fweddit and Agony, they had a plexing/pvping fleet going on in Kourmonen.

Some things never change. We’ve been fighting over Kourm since I’ve been in FW. Currently the Amarr holds the system but the Minmatar are keen on taking it back, which is a good thing because that means we get a lot of fights.

The bad part of that is that the Minmatar base out of Huola, one jump away, so they can quickly reship. I.LAW and Fweddit lives several jumps out so when we die, it’s a chore to reship quick enough.

And since we are fighting over plexes, whoever is first inside usually wins the fight because they are able to set up at ranges, get their ECM far enough away etc. It’s a bitch trying to warp griffins and such into a plex, they pretty much insta pop.

Despite reshipping issues, we won all the fights that I was there for. When I called it a night we were holding Kourmonen.

Today when I logged on, Kourmonen had been plexed to around 65%, the system was swarming with Minis! Many think we will lose it again, which makes plotting to store some ships there for reshipping a pointless task. Once they take the system we will be locked out of the stations.

Have I mentioned how much I hate station lock outs?

Oh, and I’m really jealous that I missed out on the Bhaalgorn, Vindi, Logi, etc fight. It happened about an hour or two before I logged on. Really, no one should be doing ANYTHING til I log on dammit! Is that too much to ask?!

Last night I logged onto EVE, checked to see if corp had a fleet or were doing anything, we had a couple of people out soloing, which I suck at so I checked to see what Fweddit was up to.

They had a kitchen sink fleet out in Metropolis and invited me to tag along. I nano’ed out a ruppy and went to meet up with them. They headed back to meet me around Hofjaldgund/Eszur. For those of you who aren’t familiar with that area, there is only one star gate that leads into Metro, and it is frequently camped with insta locking-omfg-popping ships.

I used to be a little bit arrogant about gate camps while I was in a frig. I mean really, what are the odds I’m going to get caught? I flew a frig for nine months in PIE, I was good at running away! I remember the first time someone warned me of going through that gate, and I scoffed, thinking ‘oh I got this.’ Well, they got me instead lol.

The FC last night warned of a gate camp on that gate, and said he’d bring the fleet back to meet up with me there, that way anyone who wanted to drop fleet could head on back to Egghelende.

Once I got there, the enemy gate camp had left, but I did manage to help point and nearly kill a Proteus, but he managed to make it back to gate, where half the Fweddit fleet was waiting on the other side to finish him off. Boo, no kill mail.

At that time an EVE Uni gang was reported somewhere or other. Someone in fleet opened up a convo with their FC and arranged a fight.

We all headed back to Egghelende and shipped down into destroyers. We outnumbered them a bit and offered to let them ship up into cruisers but they declined, so some of us shipped down into frigates.

We headed out and while we waited, a congo line was formed. Serious effort was put into the congo line!

( picture provided by Almity, obviously my chat boxes are in pink 😛 )

We were bored. And a bored Fweddit is a dangerous thing. Many, many links were posted in fleet, but I’ve learned long ago not to click the things. Ever.

When we left station I had a security status of -4.0. I had thought to just wait in the fight for some of EVE Uni to go GCC so that I wouldn’t lose any sec, however, too many in our fleet were flashy pirate and they called them primary. I said fuck it, sec status be damned, and started locking up all the things that were close enough to kill. I waited for over an hour for that fight, so I was getting anxious to shoot something!

The fight was pretty fun, my little coercer lived. We waited out GCC and headed back. I returned with a security status of -4.6. So close to being flashy pirate!

Some of EVE Uni came onto Fweddit comms after the fight to chat which I thought was pretty cool.

I’m thinking of posting on the EVE Uni forums under their recruitment section, I.LAW is always looking for new pilots! If you didn’t know, I’m also the Recruitment Director for I.LAW but have been really bad about putting any effort into actual recruiting. About half of our guys come from us blowing them up and then them convoing us asking to join lol. I finally put up an add on the EVE forums, I’d be really appreciative if you guys posted on it!

All in all it was a pretty low key night, but still very fun. I wanna give a big shout out to Fweddit & Moar Tears for letting me tag along! ♥

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Sovereignty Wars

Character: Elisen

***
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